Distribution and habitat suitability of species Altiphylax stoliczkai (Steindachner), Baltistan gecko, or Karakorum gecko of Ladakh.

The distribution of saurian species in Ladakh is not documented extensively compared to mammals and avian species.Four specimens of Altiphylax stoliczkai (Steindachner), Baltistan gecko, or Karakorum gecko, a species endemic to South Asia were reported from Ganglaas, Leh, Ladakh.The locality of the species is new for the species.The habitat of the species was described based on observation during surveys.Habitat suitability was also determined for the area other than the area surveyed by using Maxent software, which is based on the maximum-entropy approach for modeling species niches and distributions.Since the region is ecologically very sensitive and fragile, thus for conservation of species special strategies need to be adopted, hence described.This study is a first step in updating the databases of the species and its habitat in Ladakh, the Union Territory of India with the goal to make scientific biodiversity data available for the species for use in conservation of the species.